Origin and nature of the earth with emphasis on internal processes and phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building; surface processes, including landform evolution. Three lectures and three laboratory hours each week.

Carolina Core: SCI

Basic overview of fossils, including dinosaurs, and their importance for understanding earth history and the evolution of life. Three lectures and three laboratory hours each week.

Analysis of basic energy cycles of the earth. Interaction of human activity with earth processes to affect the environment. Three lectures and three laboratory hours each week. Field trips required.

Carolina Core: SCI

The growth of geological concepts, scientific and non-scientific. The impact of geological factors on human affairs. The role of time and evolution (biological and physical). Restricted to non-science majors.

Carolina Core: SCI

Introduction to the origin of water and water properties, water in the universe, water in the solar system, water on Earth and its geological history.

Carolina Core: SCI

An introduction to study of the earth through observation of ancient and modern earth systems in a field setting. Field trips required.

Mineral, energy, and water resources with emphasis on geological processes governing their distribution. Intended for non-science majors. Three lecture hours each week with occasional field trips.

Carolina Core: SCI

Coastal zones of South Carolina and neighboring states, including geologic history, geomorphology, stratigraphy, hydrogeology, shoreline processes, environmental issues, and effects of man. Not available for geological science or marine science major credit. Three lecture hours each week plus optional field trips.

Carolina Core: SCI

Exercises examining coastal ecology, geomorphology, hydrogeology, shoreline processes, environmental issues, and human impact. Not available for marine science major credit. Two laboratory hours per week. Scheduled field trips required.

Carolina Core: SCI

Examination of the geologic setting and scientific significance of selected National Parks. Three lecture hours.

Carolina Core: SCI

Chemical and physical processes of mineral formation in earth systems including an overview of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock-forming processes. Includes laboratory. Field trips required.

Survey of earth history, the evolution of continents and oceans, the history of life, and geological dating methods. Includes laboratory and recitation. Required field trips. Taught alternate years.

Environmental considerations of the hydrologic cycle. Occurrence and movement of surface water and groundwater as they relate to water budgets, water supply, and ecosystems. Geochemistry of natural waters, water quality, and pollution.

Overview of groundwater, surface water hydrology, sediment transport, river systems, and coastal processes. Includes laboratory and recitation. Required field trips.

Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Research

Directed field studies of extraordinary geological locations in North America. Requires a seven- to nine-day field trip during spring break.

Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Research

Overview of sedimentary basins, sediment transport, sedimentation, depositional environments, stratigraphy, seismic stratigraphy, eustacy, and sedimentary petrology. Includes laboratory and recitation. Required field trips.

The science of global change, its relation to the hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. Global system science, biogeochemical cycles, paleoclimatology, glaciation, and eustacy.

Origin and significance of igneous and metamorphic rocks, and relation to tectonic processes. Mineralogy, geochemistry, volcanism, plate tectonics, isostasy, heat flow. Includes laboratory and recitation. Required field trips.

Geologic structures and deformation of Earth materials. Stress and strain, deformation mechanisms, P-T-t paths, geologic maps, and structural regimes in plate tectonics. Includes laboratory and recitation. Required field trips.

Computational analysis of earth, marine, and environmental datasets applying time series analysis, regression, filtering, and statistical analysis.

Cross-listed course: ENVR 365, MSCI 365

Introduction to terrestrial and tidal river morphology and processes, with case studies of South Carolina. Field trips required.

Contract approved by instructor, advisor, and department chair is required for undergraduate students.

Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Research

Supervised internship experience in a professional environment within the field of geology and/or related geological sciences. Undergraduate internship contract required with approval of instructor, advisor, and department head before registration.

Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Internships

Experiential Learning: Experiential Learning Opportunity

Student research on problems of regional and fundamental significance, supervised by a faculty member of the student’s choice. Emphasis is on the development of critical thinking and lucid scientific report writing.

Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Research

Student research on problems of regional and fundamental significance, supervised by a faculty member of the student’s choice. Emphasis is on the development of critical thinking and lucid scientific report writing.

Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Research

Geological field techniques including the use of field instruments and the preparation of geologic maps. Written and oral reports required.

Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Research

The process of earth denudation with emphasis on chemistry of weathering, stream and erosion hydraulics, quantitative analysis of land form evolution.

Geological and physical controls on the morphology, development, and stability of coastlines. Analysis of waves and erosional processes, and coastal zone morphodynamics. Several required field trips.

Sedimentologic, biostratigraphic, and tectonic history of North America, approached from paleogeographic considerations with emphasis on the Atlantic Coastal Plain and Continental Margin. Three hours lecture and three hours recitation per week. Required field trips.

This course will discuss the urgent need for deploying solar radiation and carbon dioxide removal approaches at scale, including potential benefits and risks of these options. It will also discuss regulatory and governance considerations at both the national and international level and strategizes to incentivize large-scale adoption of these approaches.

Cross-listed course: ENVR 504, MSCI 504

Systematic, ecologic, biogeographic, and evolutionary aspects of paleontology; lectures, practical exercises, field trips.

Marine microfossils; distribution, ecology, paleoecology, and biostratigraphy; use of microfossils in marine sediments to study oceanographic history. Three lectures and two laboratory hours per week.

Modern concepts of sediment composition, sedimentary facies, depositional environments, and stratigraphy. Includes laboratory.

Surface to subsurface stratigraphic interpretation and techniques; litho- and biostratigraphy; geophysical log interpretation and subsurface presentation.

Dating techniques for Pleistocene deposits, sediments, archaeological materials, igneous and metamorphic rocks.

Investigation of low temperature chemical reactions controlling the geochemistry of the earth’s surface. Emphasis on CO2, carbonates, oxidation-reduction, thermodynamics, isotopes, biogeochemistry.

Introduction to radioactivity and the use of radionuclides to study environmental processes, including age-dating and biogeochemical cycling in aquatic systems.

Petrography and petrogenesis of igneous rocks; evolution of contrasting petrotectonic terranes. Three lectures and three laboratory hours per week.

Petrography and petrogenesis of metamorphic rocks in orogenic belts. Three lectures and three laboratory hours per week.

Geological and geophysical evidence for plate tectonics, detailed development of the plate tectonics model, and present areas of research, including measurements of plate motion using satellite geodesy.

Application of two or more geophysical field methods to a current geological problem. Independent study contract required.

Origin, internal structure and internal processes of the earth, including plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building. Required field trips, two lectures, and three lab hours per week. Cannot be used in MS or PhD programs in geology.

Surface processes acting on the earth; introduction to weather and climate, weathering, erosion, and sedimentary processes; land form evolution; ocean currents and tides, near-shore geologic processes. Required field trips, two lecture, and three lab hours per week. Cannot be used in MS or PhD programs in geology.

Introduction to methods used in discipline-based education research and their application to research questions in the geosciences.

A comprehensive study of the origin and development of the major structural features of the ocean basins and the continental margins. Discussion of the techniques used in obtaining geologic data and the interpretation of sedimentary processes, vulcanism, and the stratigraphy of the ocean basins.

Introduction to the nature and structure of the ocean floor as revealed by geophysical techniques. Two hours lecture and three hours laboratory.

Practical geophysical techniques for exploring the shallow subsurface. Seismic, resistivity, well log, gravity, magnetic method. Includes lectures and field exercises to collect and analyze data.

Problems of sequence stratigraphy resolved with graphic computer simulations. Sedimentary fill of basins by carbonates and/or clastics tracked as a function of rate of sediment accumulation, tectonic behavior, and sea level. Includes laboratory.

Marine sedimentary environments; physical/biological factors which control the formation and distribution of modern marine sediments.

Theory of seismic wave propagation. Seismic reflection data acquisition, processing, and interpretation.

Basic elements of seismology. Mathematical development of seismic wave equations; measurement, description, and interpretation of seismic data.

The interpretation of geologic structure using seismic sections. Recognition of apparent structure caused by velocity anomalies, multiples, and complex reflector geometry. Application to hydrocarbon exploration.

Physical and geological processes controlling the formation and evolution of beach, barrier, and nearshore environments, including discussion of coastal management issues.

An approach to problems of resource management by lecture and seminar using case studies in mineral, energy, hydrogeological, and environmental science.

Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Research

Experiential Learning: Experiential Learning Opportunity

An introduction to field methods in sedimentology, structural geology, hydrogeology and geophysics with special reference to geological hazards and environmental problems.

Climatic changes of the past and their impact on the physical landscape, with an emphasis on the Quaternary period.

Small-scale processes in the atmospheric boundary layers, including energy budget, radiation, soil heat transfer, humidity, viscous flows, turbulence, momentum and heat exchanges, evaporation, and marine atmospheric boundary layer.

Environmental considerations of the hydrologic cycle, occurrence and movement of ground water, aquifer analysis, and water well emplacement and construction. Water quality, pollution parameters, and the geochemistry of selected natural systems. The effects of environmental problems, waste disposal, and urban development upon the aqueous geochemical regime.

Saturated and unsaturated water flow through soils, pore pressure development, runoff generation, and watershed response to rainfall. Three lecture and three laboratory hours per week.

Finite difference and finite element methods for solving the diffusion equation and advection-dispersion equation, with applications in hydrogeology, geophysics, geology, and marine science.

The physical mechanism responsible for interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere and the influence of air-sea interaction on atmospheric and oceanic dynamics and thermodynamics on a wide variety of spatial/temporal scales.

This course provides knowledge of various techniques used in satellite remote sensing of the oceans. Key skills will be developed in satellite data processing, image analysis, and hands-on research.

Estuarine kinematics and dynamics; classification of estuaries; estuarine circulation and mixing. Scheduled field trips are required.

Basic principles of fluid statics and dynamics. Conservation of mass, momentum, and energy; viscosity, vorticity, and boundary layers with examples from the marine environment. Applications to and analysis of ocean currents and waves.

Geological and geochemical processes in salt marshes. Methods of geological research in marshes including instrumental techniques, sampling design, and data analysis. Two lectures per week plus four weekends of project oriented fieldwork and/or equivalent lab work. Scheduled field trips are required.

Current developments in geological science selected to meet faculty and student interests. Course content varies and will be announced by title in schedule of courses.

Advanced research topics in geology and geophysics; critical reading of literature, technical presentations, and written reports. Senior standing.

SEM, ESEM, TEM, and EMPA, WDS quantitative analysis, EDS semi-quantitative analysis, EBSD, methods of sample preparation, and applications in varieties of disciplines. Two lecture and three laboratory hours per week.

Senior capstone experience, research on a problem on fundamental significance, supervised by faculty member; must include field study component, written final project report, and oral presentation at departmental seminar.